14 DAY TRIAL // Sony has done something a bit different yesterday, with the company's vice president of marketing, Peter Dille, saying that Sony hopes the Nintendo 3DS handheld will sell well, in order to really get 3D technology to the public, a strategy that the Japanese company also has, thanks to the PlayStation 3 and the Bravia 3DTVs.
After mocking Microsoft's Kinect yesterday, Sony decided to show some love to its fellow Japanese rival, Nintendo, with Dille saying that it hopes Nintendo will sell a lot of 3DS handheld devices, even if they will be competing its Sony's own PlayStation Portable.
Why does Sony support a rival device? It's all because it wants the regular public to experience 3D, and then step up from that by purchasing 3D-enabled devices like the PlayStation 3 or the Bravia 3DTVs.
"Our perspective is they are doing something different and that's what Nintendo does," said Dille. "They've got their own view, Sony has their own view. Our hope is they do it well because we're big advocates of 3D. We need consumers to have good 3D experiences.
"I actually haven't seen much of their technology. I know people are excited about it. I've heard a little bit that if you move your head a certain way you might lose the image," he added.
"I just hope they do a great job, building a great 3D platform so people are interested in other 3D platforms. Because, collectively, we need to make sure a consumer has a good experience with 3D however they're experiencing it so they have an interest in more 3D."
Even if Sony is backing 3D, its next handheld device, the PSP2, won't support such a feature, at least judging by all of the rumors that appeared up until now.
Given the declining popularity of the current PSP and the PSP Go, perhaps it's for the best that Sony leaves pushing 3D on handheld devices to Nintendo.
The Nintendo 3DS is scheduled to be launched in February, 2011 in its native Japan, and will arrive in North America and Europe around March, while the PSP2 might hit the market at the end of next year.